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San Francisco's Tenderloin district is a high density urban area in the heart of the city. The area begins north of Market Street and stretches roughly from Van Ness Avenue north of Golden Gate Avenue to the streets west of Union Square north toward Post Street. It is known for older tenement housing, sidewalks that smell of urine, easy availability of illegal drugs, and obvious street prostitution. It is also noted for its racial diversity, eclectic nightlife, and excellent restaurants in a city known for such things.

In the early Twentieth Century it was known as a place of cheap amusements, and after the Eighteenth Amendment prohibited the sale of alcoholic beverages throughout the United States, it became notorious for its concentration of illegal bars, or "speakeasies."

A legend has it that the neighborhood earned its name from the words of a local police captain, who was overheard saying that when he was assigned to another part of town, he could only afford to eat chuck steak on the salary he was earning, but after he was transferred to this neighborhood he was making so much money on the side soliciting bribes that now he could eat tenderloin instead.

The 'loin is astonishingly close to the Union Square tourist and shopping area. This provides for societal contrasts, such as the sight of a strung out junkie covered in urine passed out in front of a $300 a night hotel.

Vietnamese immigrants have moved to the area and have improved the neighborhood somewhat with their shops and restaurants. Signs along Larkin Street proclaim (at least this part of the neighborhood) "Little Saigon".

Lately, an influx of Pakistani resturants has earned the area centered on the intersection of Jones and O'Farrell as the "Tandoorloin".

The Tenderloin is also affectionately known as the "TL" by the city's youth.

To divide up regions even further, a very small area where the Tenderloin begins to morph into tony Nob Hill is known as the "Tendernob".

External links

• http://www.tenderloin.net
• http://www.sfgate.com/traveler/guide/sf/neighborhoods/tenderloin.shtml
• http://www.newcolonist.com/tenderloin.html
• http://www.letsgo.com/SF/01-DiscoverSF-79
• http://involution.org/tendernob.html

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